Transcripts For SFGTV BOS Budget And Finance Committee 3217

This is a thing that i think its great that people want to pitch in with their private funds, but lets not separate people, and lets not have the conversation and allowing individuals to say these people have a right to be defended and these people do not. Which i think is some of the trump narrative and i think its an excellent idea and again, i have mentioned it to the Mayors Office and supervisor cohen and im glad there is getting some traction on this. I will say it does compliment exactly what im here today to promote. One, is because our public defender in this current proposal, which is i think a deep compromise, will only serve 200300 and we know there are 1500 people in detention. Our bla report states those people in detention, seven times more likely to be successful if they have representation and quite frankly, we might have four more years of trump and we dont know how many more people are going to be detained in these Detention Centers . Quite frankly, also, the president has also said that he is going to look into opening private Detention Centers meaning there is more people. Also from the analysis that we have seen, were not just serving english speakers, but chinese and spanish speakers and will need Language Access and translation and this is where the super fund actually can be really instrumental in complimenting what we are actually proposing here today. I also want to say that were talking about people in detention. There are people the if nonprofits are serving people out of detention and not everybody going to Immigration Court is in detention, but there are 1500 individuals today, who are in detention. That is a lockdown prison facility. And twothirds of them have no prior criminal record. When we speak to an administrative when we speak to an immigration judge, she says what they come before her, her first statement of defense must be in flood english and i applaud the effort of the mayor, Interfaith Council to get the funds because that funding stretch further to support and serve more people. So thank you so much for your work. Im so glad that were all working together on this. I think the Public Defenders Office can only do so much with this funding. This funding is a compromise. And as we mentioned, only 200300 cases a year when we know there are over a thousand cases that come to San Francisco court regarding deportation and thank you, public defender for your comments. Thank you very much. Let me see, colleagues are there any questions or feedback that you would like to give . All right. Were going to hear from the budget legislative analyst. Thank you. Yes, budget legislative analyst office, between the two weeks for this legislation we revised our recommendations from priority legislation and recommended reduction in the supplemental appropriation from the current amount of 2. 2 million to revised amount of 2. 1 million and that is basically to account for the fact that if these 13 positions in 1617 to be approved couldnt be hired before may 1st at the earliest and also recommend under this supplemental appropriation a provision for 13 positions in 1617 and the positions in 1718 and also recommend of the 15 positions requested for 1718 that seven of those positions be placed as limited tenure for no more than years. Quick question, you highlight limited tenure for three years. How did you come to select the number three . Three is actually the maximum amount that the allowed for limited tenure position. Thank you very much. I dont know if there is flig else. Anything else. If the mayors Budget Office wants to take a few remarks. Melissa white house mayors budget director and in particular i want to thank mr. Agarta, giving us a lot of helpful information. From our perspective, i think that there is a larger context here. Right now we have 350 million budget deficit. I have been spending a lot of time over the past couple of weekses working with the City Attorneys Office with the declaration of lawsuit against the Trump Administration. So when we talk about this, were talking about adding funding to our budget before we have seen the full picture and before i know more information. So we dont take this lightly and really been paying attention to this and something that we said and the mayor said from the beginning, he is willing to and is paying very close attention to what is happening on the ground and will spend more money where and when needed and come to believe since september, there is a need for this funding and will compliment using the public defenders currentyears savings, and the spending would be on top of that. When i think about that, from our perspective, and when i have looked at the numbers it looks like we could cover all detain and nondetained San Francisco residents and pim people in our community as the defender said earlier. That is where were at right now and i think it makes a lot of sense and i think as we have been saying from the beginning, were open to new information and working with the public defender through the budget proximate if it becomes clear that more resources are needed to talk about that for this issue or others. There are many issues facing our community right now and i dont know exactly what the Trump Administration is going to do on this and on health care and many other things and the mayors perspective is that we need to be disciplined and prepared for us in future. Thank you very much. Lets go to Public Comment. Ladies and gentlemen, if you have come to speak on items 6 and 7, please courtroom. Come up. We would love to hear from you. Its our courtesy to allow our seniors and disabled members to speak at the front of the line. Next speaker, please come up. First off, i find it hard to hear the conversation around the funding for this issue. It sounds like a charity. The United States Government Politics and their economic policies that have created most of the immigrants coming to this country and most of these immigrants, probably 99 are working people, men and women like myself, who are trying to make a better lives for themselves and their families. I think its the policy of San Francisco since its inception that we try to take care of people like this and i was wondering what the nativeamericans should have done to the mayflower when they landed . The rich have the right to, and do buy their citizenship rights. I think its cost half a million right now and trump will probably raise that a bit throwing money into the Republican Party or his corporations. So i really quibbling over money like this, when its the United States Government Policies that created this problem. And the idea that were going to i just heard a report at the Labor Council meeting on monday, from the central valley, and these i. C. E. Agents are just terrorizing the communities. Whether you are a citizen or not, if you dont look like archie bunker, were going to check you out and that is what is happening throughout the country. Over 33 of the population of this city are immigrants. Citizens. And obama deported 2,500,000. Trump wants to raise that a little bit though. So lets open up your pockets and your heart a little bit, San Francisco. Thank you. Thank you, next speaker, please good afternoon, im Robert Reuben civil rights attorney in San Francisco and author of the sanctuary ordinance in 1989. Just to respond to one thing that was just said. I think the problem with the native americans that they had bad immigration laws and that was probably the consequence of everything that has happened since. But i would urge the board in this regard that delays defeat. If you delay or you dont fund this program to the maximum extent possible, well lose people who will not come back. These are folks who are going to go forward in their deportation hearings without representation. You heard supervisor fewer talk about the percentage of people likely to lose their deportion hearings if they are lacking counsel, and that is very real. These are not things that can be made up. These folks will be deported and in some instances to countries where they will face persecution, if not death. And therefore, i would strongly urge you to pass this piece of legislation in line with what the public defender adachi talked about. I think one other thing that i would like to mention, there isnt a play between what you do here and the sanctuary ordinance, which is that if you dont fund lawyers for these immigrants, we wont know about violations of the sanctuary ordinance and there wont be anybody here to talk about it. So your failure to fund this Program Fully will undermine your efforts for compliance with the sanctuary ordinance and urge you to fund this at fullest level possible and to save these immigrants to persecution or worse they are without representation. Thank you, next speaker. Good afternoon, im the Development Director on 16thing and valencia and anticipating and preparing for the worst and that time has come. We cannot have sanctuary city without universal representation and just like my colleagues said before me, that is completely true. The mayor has spoken on the good immigrant bad immigrant and daca and nondaca and we have i wanted seen an increase of i. C. E. Presence all over the country as supervisor fewer has explained. We cannot just yesterday, dea inspector and i. C. E. Were conducting raid and they are becoming increasingly strategic in conducting raids in the city and there is more investigation. There will be an increase of immigrant detainees. As nonprofits we need the public defenders leadership and guidance and resources to ensure the protection of our immigrant community and i urge this committee and the board of supervisors to approve at maximum capacity. Thank you. Thank you,. Next speaker, please. Good afternoon we urge to support the budget increasing funding for Legal Support for immigrants. As a city we can say were sanctuary and provide Additional Resources to really show our city. So please support the request and help out all immigrants. Its the right thing to do. Thank you. Thank you, next speaker, please. Hi. My name is tim kingston, the investigator with the San Francisco Public Defenders Office and im here on my own time and strongly support full funding of the measure. They are the people in the streets and courts defending the people. We know how to do it and this funding may increase the workload of the investigators, but were willing to do that to make sure that San Francisco remain a sanctuary city. Its crucial this legislation support the people in this city. Were all residents. We all need protection. Thank you. Ing thank you, next speaker. Good afternoon, supervisor. My name is andy stone, the director of advocacy pangea services one of the organizations currently funded by the city of San Francisco that provide Legal Services to immigrants and were one of the three nonprofits that provides detained representation. Detention, in fact, impacts entire families and communities. We have arrived a moment of great moral urgency and its imperative take a lead and according to a new york study, 50 have lived in u. S. For over ten years. The fact of the matter is that the detention actually has severe Economic Impacts and financial impacts for the family, and for the entire community. One study from the new york family unity project report clearly states that the program would generate nearly 1. 9 million in annual savings to new york city by reducing spending on Public Health Insurance Programs and Foster Care Services and capturing tax revenues that would otherwise be lost; right . We have to realize the impact of these raids is rippling through our communities and the people are afraid, afraid to go to school and afraid to would go to work and these ripple effects are real. According to a study in San Francisco area, we had an ongoing gap in services for detained immigrants and to decrease this the communitybased organizations worked with the Public Defenders Office to champion this initiative along with support of supervisor fewer. Thank you so much for championing this initiative. Its extremely important, and we have to be bold and make a strong statement. We live in a very urgent moment. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. Good afternoon, supervisor, thank you for giving this me this opportunity to speak. My name is Trevor Martin a proud husband of a beautiful colombian immigrant and record amounts of families sought sanctuary from their homelands these dockets move on expedited pace and efforts to process these deportation as quickly as possible. We have a xenophobe there office and i. C. E. Agents showing up at centers and checking ids on domestic flights out of San Francisco. This community is threatened. Their Due Process Rights are threatened by the ability to find attorneys and properly present their cases in court and family and children suffering from these traumatic experiences and having little resources to obtain counsel. Since late 2016 the sf Immigration Court has seen the highest number of families on these. Statistics show that immigrants with representation have a better chance in court and supervisor fewer mentioned the study saying seven times. I found a study saying 14 times more successful. We need to protect those who cannot afford or dont understand that they need representation. We cannot only provide sanctuary, but we must provide legal representation. Thank you. Thank you, next speaker, please. Translator my name is mariam. We urge you to support the budget request to increase funding for Legal Support to immigrants in the city. As a city, we cannot just say that we are say sanctuary city and not provide the support that we need. That we need to be able to take the real action, the right action to support immigrants all over the city. I also think as god says, were born here. We grow up on these lands and we all have a right to live here on this land. We dont have were not all fortunate to be born in golden cribs. Some of us have to migrate to other lands where were not born to be able to survive and to live and thrive. And i think this is the right proposal to be able to support everybody and give everybody equal rights. Thank you. Hi everybody, my name is carolina morales and here as the harvey milk lgbt club with support of this legislation and think its important to be we are sanctuary and not just say were sanctuary in particular for queer and transgender immigrants who come here seeking safety, not only from other countries, but also from other cities in the United States. Its very important that when especially queer and transpeople of color interfaith with the police at higher rates and that puts them at higher risk to be in deportation proceedings, and we need the public defender to be able oto have the resources to do their job and provide due process to erving. Thank you. Lelo supervisors. Tom, a member of the City College Board of trustees and here on behalf of all six my colleagues, all of us have endorsed and supported the legislation before you today. And more importantly, i am here on behalf of all of our undocumented students and their families. At city college, we have over 600 ab540 students, those are students who through state legislation have been able to, despite being undocumented take advantage of instate tuition here in california. Our undocumented students are scared. They are scared that they or their family or someone that they love may end up as one of the 1500 people being held here in San Francisco for detention without legal representation. That has a tremendous, tremendous impact on their daily lives, not to mention their academic performance. At city college, were proud to be a sanctuary campus for our students. As a san franciscan, i am proud to live in a sanctuary city, and as an elected representative here in San Francisco i was proud to stand with each and every one of you on the steps of city hall after the election of our president , and to say, and to hold cardss saying we stand as one. I want to remind you we all stood there and said that and its an opportunity to do more than speak, but to stand with them. I want to thank the Mayors Office, and our Philanthropic Partners for finding additional funding, but to remind the board of supervisors, there is a difference between philanthropic interests having your back and the city of San Francisco and public defender of San Francisco having your back. So please support this legislation today. Thank you. Good morning. Thank you again for the opportunity to speak in front of this committee. My name is claire and im the managing director of a private foundation here in San Francisco, half of our portfolio is Legal Services,. In addition, im one of the founders of the